Hook
by Cheisayume
Summary: He drew down the book and she felt herself tense up. Was he going to take it? Fear hit her in the stomach. Noooo… that book had just been released a month ago and she had just caught up on the series… if he took it away now, she might actually cry! [oneshot- GajeelxLevy]


_Note before you read: This is a oneshot for Gajeel x Levy—I just want to show that my writing style can stretch to modern times and to past times, as well as times that don't exist. So let's hit the shuffle button on my oldie's mix (which has a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy on it oh god) and start writing some stuff—this was not plotted out at all. It's completely what I like to call "play time."_

**Hook**

The first thing she noticed about the guy was that he was extraordinarily tall. Not that she wasn't one of the shortest people in her class, anyway. He towered over her now, staring down at her with a pair of eyes that had to be colored contacts—or maybe it was the hellish fluorescent lighting. In any case, her pale hand was still upstretched towards where the book had been just moments ago. Now it was being squeezed in between the guy's fingertips, the binding being pressed in towards its glorious ink-filled paper guts. Levy blinked, suddenly aware that her jaw had become unhinged, allowing her lips to part just a bit. She blinked multiple times and pulled back, snapping her arm back to her side and averting her eyes, hoping the lenses in her red glasses would help her lashes to hide her gaze. Fumbling to occupy herself with something, she twiddled with her hair, trying to push back a loose strand that was too short to stay behind her ear. The rest of her messy blue hair was pulled into a ponytail, something she always did when she was going on a book binge. He drew down the book and she felt herself tense up. Was he going to take it? Fear hit her in the stomach. Noooo… that book had just been released a month ago and she had just caught up on the series… if he took it away now, she might actually cry!

She was cute, if that was the proper word to describe her. Her short hair only added to the fact that she barely reached just above his elbow. This meeting wasn't by chance… hell no. Gajeel had been watching the little girl flit around the library like some kind of child in a candy shop, bending down, standing on her tiptoes, almost falling over when she hit a cart (which Gajeel had to hide his amused snort with a cough for), kneeling down to see the titled of a book that was on the bottom-most shelf… etc. He hadn't meant to be stalker-ish. She was just a splat of color in a world that was usually only grayscale—and not just because of her cerulean hair and bright red glasses. Instead of behaving like all the other college idiots here, she seemed to be sincerely interested in what was on the shelves. And she stayed mostly in the fiction area. She wasn't searching for materials, which meant (duh) that she had gone out of her way to come here. Taken time out of her day to peruse a library that was the epitome of hell on earth when it came to finals week. He'd made sure to keep her within sight for about ten minutes, and when she had spotted a treasure on the highest shelf, he raised his pierced brows in amusement. Like she was going to be able to reach that without a three-tiered step stool. A grin slid across his face as he watched her do her best, including stepping on the lowest shelf to gain an extra inch. When her fingers still failed to grab a hold of the cover, he shut the book he had been turning pages in, not paying any attention to, and made his way over to her, his braid swinging behind his back and bumping up against his spine. So interested was she in getting to the book that she didn't even see him stand beside her and reach up for it as well. Only when his hand bumped into hers to grab onto the siding of the thing did she turn her head. And Gajeel stared back, surprised that he had been caught in her gaze. He didn't usually do good deeds. He didn't usually care for others beside himself (and his cat, of course), but this little shrimp seemed to just be calling his name. Who was she? Whoever she was, he liked her. Not in the way a boy usually should, but in a bit of admiration for her ability to stumble around and still get through her daily activities. She was, in that word, cute. He stared as she averted her gaze and attempted to move backwards. And then it happened.

Levy's converse had never failed her before, so why they did in this moment… well it was a mystery to her. She moved backwards so as to give the guy more space (or actually, to give herself more space because by god he was waay too tall to be that close to her) but forgot entirely about where she was. What she was standing on was still beneath her—an inch of extra height provided by the metal bookshelf that held so many books for the college campus, Levy couldn't bear to start counting them without picking up every single one. She took a step back and the rubber on the bottom of her trusty shoes slipped—probably from the lingering layer of snow that had stuck to the bottom of it from her walk outside, and she fell backwards. The tassels on her mustard hoodie flew in front of her widened eyes as gravity did as gravity does. She closed her eyes, clenched her jaw and prepared herself for the butt pain that would soon arrive; and the embarrassment of having to face the guy afterwards. But she never did hit the floor. Instead, something snagged her belt loop on her too-worn jeans and her heels dug into the cheap carpet. Be it instinct or whatever it was, on a whim, her hand shot out, her fingers grappling for whatever was trying to offer her safety. They found their hold on a knit piece of cloth—a scarf.

Gajeel would have cracked up laughing if he had been but an observer in this situation. But he wasn't an observer. He was actually a participant in it. When he saw her fall, his brows furrowed and he snuck his hand out, aiming to loop it around her waist. He realized, though that if he did exactly that, her momentum would turn on him and she would end up shooting away from his arm and still falling to the ground, perhaps hitting her head against the bookshelves on either side of her. And he couldn't grab her arm because it was already moving itself back to brace against the collision with the ground. So he did what he could and hoped to god that her belt loop didn't rip on him. He slid two fingers through the loop and tugged, pinching a side of her jean as well to get a better grip on her. Was this inappropriate?! Gajeel's jaw clenched and he blinked hard. No. No. He was helping her. Like a venomous snake, her arm flew forward, making a move to grab whatever it could. And the first thing she got was the muffler around his neck. For the love of… couldn't she just have grabbed his black jacket? It all happened so quickly. His neck slid forward, pulled by the force of her hold, and he ended up smashing his body into hers. Gajeel's other hand, the one with the book in it, moved around to her back so as to try and support her so that they both wouldn't go down. Her backpack slammed into his arm and he squeezed it as tight as he dared. When the movement finally stopped, they were still in a teetering position, with the girl pressed into him, her hair tickling the side of his neck.

Oh. My. Holy. Shit. Levy stayed up against the guy for a while, completely surprised by the fact that he had just 1) kept her from falling into the floor 2) pressed her up against him. The beating of her heart seemed to have stopped dead in her chest. She didn't mean to, but she ended up relaxing into him, her frozen heart returning to it's hammering state when she did. Moments of this silence continued and, after a while, she flew backwards, breaking out of his grasp. Her face was beet red, matching the color of her winged little glasses.

"I—I'm so so sorry! I totally didn't mean to do that, I mean, I.." And she kept rambling. Which was a bad thing. A very bad thing. She stuttered multiple times, only further pulling in her embarrassment so that it created a sort of layer over the top of her own skin. "I—." She stopped, frowning a little, then clutched her hands to her chest, closing her eyes tightly. "SORRY AND THANK YOU BUT I'LL BE GOING NOW!"

Blushing, the girl gave her apologies multiple times, to which Gajeel could only try to appear as if he was okay with it. He was. It's just, he didn't like accepting gratitude. It was an awkward thing to do, and he only made it even more awkward. But after a while of this, she went quiet, her face looking like it'd been hit by a cherry pie. The guy did his best to hide his smirk, but ended up having to wipe his hand over his mouth, trying to think of something absolutely horrible. Like having to sit in a lecture hall for three hours. That made the grin disappear as quickly as it had come around. But she screamed something out then, which Gajeel barely caught, and she ended up flying away from him before he could distinguish the meaning of her words, and he stared after her, dumbfounded. When she had all but gone from his sight, he glanced at the book in his hands and turned it over, twisting it so that he could read the title. A slow smile appeared on his face, and a "Gihi~" escaped his lips. He ran a hand over the back of his neck and then turned back to go and get his stuff.

When Levy got back to her dorm room, she slammed the door shut and sighed loudly. Her roommate, a cute blonde girl she had met just this year named Lucy, peeked her head around. She was holding a hairdryer in her hand (she had mostly afternoon classes so she was either getting ready for those, or she was going on a date with Natsu again). Her eyebrows rose a few inches and Levy closed her eyes, sliding down the wooden door to the linoleum floor.

"Oh my. Something has gotten to you, Levy. Is it a book or an actual, living, breathing person?" Levy opened one of her eyes and stared at the girl.

"The latter." Lucy almost dropped the hairdryer as a squeal escaped her lips.

"No. Way. IT'S A GUY ISN'T IT!?" She turned the thing off and snatched Levy up, dragged her to the couch and sat down with her. Levy smiled half-heartedly. Leave it to Lucy to get all excited about some accident. Nevertheless, she still told the blonde all about it. By the end of her story, Lucy had hearts in her eyes and was most definitely shipping Levy with the nameless guy already in her crazed head. But despite her roommates wishing for her to return to the library to see if she could catch him while he was still there, Levy stayed glued to the couch, not sure herself just what she was intending to do—if she was planning to do anything at all.

For a week, Gajeel kept returning to the library, in that area, at the same time every day. But he never saw the girl again, which was turning out to be a problem because the check-out date on the book that he had picked up for her (and had checked out) was next week… only four days away. The guy slid down in the uncomfortable chair that was pulled up to a two person table and he dropped his pencil onto his notebook. Studying wasn't going well, either, why? Because he definitely wasn't paying attention to it. Instead, he was actually scanning the room every fifteen seconds so that he could see if the little spitfire was there or not. She didn't come that day, either, which had the guy cursing his having let go of her when he had. He should have refused to leave her side, should have bugged her for her name and her year. He popped an earbud into his left auditory unit and hit the college music station. Every few hours there was something different on…

"—anyway so I want to know who this guy is! She's an article writer in the publishing room and is usually there from 8 to 9 every Tuesday and Friday." Great. A talk show. He was about to switch it. Another's girls voice accompanied the first.

"Wow! So if you were in the library last week and you helped keep some freshman from falling on her ass, come to room 101 in the University Center on Tuesday's and Friday's at around 8 to 9 p.m..." Gajeel was staring at his cellular device, totally stupefied. He held it up to the light, peering against the fluorescent bulbs to see just what time it was. Classic music hit his ears, a song he only knew the chorus to. It was 8:40. A moment passed… and then he flew into motion, gathering up all his work and stuffing it into the dark backpack he'd got at the school bookstore. He could make it there in five minutes. But what if she left early?! Gajeel's teeth bit into his lip, almost grabbing the piercing just below on his chin, as he swung the pack up over one shoulder. He ran. At first he had planned on walking so as to not grab too much attention, but as he fumbled to get the book out of the depths of his bag. But about a fourth of the way there, five minutes had already passed. The December wind wasn't helping, pulling the temperatures way past freezing and no doubt contributing to the ice underfoot. He found her though, just as the crazy kids on the radio had said. She was typing intently on a keyboard, eyes completely focused on her work. She was still wearing her glasses, but when she sat back, she took them off. He doubted she even realized just how close she had been to the screen. And he knocked.

Levy was just finishing up and she sat back to review over the article she had chosen to write on how to become more energy-efficient around campus (it was just a side column… not too long at all) and breathed out. Today had been a long day. She'd had to work on her Anthropology homework at the same time as publishing the paper, and so that caused the process to go slower. Editing had taken forever too… She blinked away the tired feeling in her eyes and she stretched, returning to gathering her things and hitting the send button on the page… when a flicker of motion caught her attention from the corner of her peripheral vision. Her head snapped to the side, sure it was a bat or a mouse or some other kind of creature that would send her squealing to the front desk in a hurry. But it wasn't. It was something worse. Outside the door, panting and looking as if he had gone through the ninth level of Hell in the Divine Comedy, was the guy who had caught her in the library. A small "eep!" escaped her lips and she ducked behind her desk, going to the floor. Which was stupid, really because he had seen her and she had made eye contact with him. Levy put her hands to her face and breathed in a few deep breaths.

"Calm down," she told herself quietly, "he's just here because he lost his way or something. Or maybe he has something to say for the newspaper… or maybe he's selling something." Like pheromones? She blushed and poked her head experimentally over the desktop. She immediately slipped back down. Yeah, he was definitely still there. But the door was locked from the inside so he couldn't get in… Levy clapped her hands to her cheeks and counted to three, standing up on two, and walked over to the door as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Hi—can I help you with—." Her words were cut short when a book was thrust into her face. She backed up quickly, staring at the thing and recognizing it as the same one she had been reaching for last week. Her hazel eyes fluttered up to the guy's face and she couldn't decide whether to laugh or thank him. Thankfully her body ended up choosing the answer for her and soft chuckles escaped her lips.

He smiled when she laughed and passed the book to her.

"That's a good one, but I don't think you should read it if you're a big fan of the main couple. Might as well write your own story and pretend that that's the ending." She looked at him, her laughter stopped in her throat. His gaze wandered to the desk behind her in an attempt to lower the awkwardness of the situation. "Read it when it first came out."

Apparently he had something along the right lines because the open look on her face suddenly became ever the more welcoming and she lowered the book to her side, her other arm reaching out, fingers open.

"Levy McGarden—thanks again for… you know." He took it in his own hand, though not before taking off his glove—it was wet with snow.

"Gajeel Redfox." She smiled and then went to grab her bag. He was about to turn around and walk back outside (perhaps she didn't want to talk to him and that's why she was walking in the opposite direction…) when she ran up beside him, locking the door behind her.

"Say—want to go get a cup of cocoa? There's a small shop right off campus that sells the best hot chocolate in the world!" He stared at her, surprised.

"Is that a proven fact?"

"Well that's what it says on the door." He laughed heartily and it was accompanied by her own laughter.

"Why not?"

And the two walked out the center and into the snow-ridden night, the lamp-posts reflecting their light off of the snow.

_Note after you read: Oh my godddd. I love this pairing so much. 3 This was cute—I actually liked writing this one. The Awesome Mix from Guardians of the Galaxy really helped haha. So jealous of Levy right now, though. SOOOO._


End file.
